Petals on the Edge of Oblivion
by Serengeti Dawn
Summary: Chapter 4 up...A "Beauty and the Beast" rhapsody on a theme of "Kingdom Hearts."
1. Chapter 1

Copyright notice: "Kingdom Hearts" is jointly owned by Disney and Squaresoft, and is unquestionably one of the finest things the former has done for itself in awhile. I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Author's note: I almost never use these, so please indulge me this brief aside. One of the best parts of playing "Kingdom Hearts" was watching Beast on his quest for Belle. Robby Benson has always done a phenomenal job of bringing the character to life, and the utter despair and anguish and encompassing passion that drove KH's Beast was absolutely heartbreaking. That added depth to Beast has been driving my long Disney fanfic, but since he's only been featured very little, I thought it might be nice to let him out of the castle for a little bit. Even though he's in for a rather rough ride…

Petals on the Edge of Oblivion

He should never have let her go.

She disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.

And her scream…

She called for him.

Begged him to help her.

He couldn't.

"Belle."

Hearing her name aloud helped. It convinced him that she hadn't been a mere vision, that there had been a time away from this dungeon, this cage, prison.

Hell.

Perhaps that is indeed where he was, his past transgressions too terrible even for her to grant his salvation. He wouldn't be terribly surprised if indeed this was his eternity, barred forever from the one being who gave him hope, his memory taunting him into the ages beyond time.

He looked at the metal bars enclosing him, the texture and design alien to him. Testing the strength of the metal, he wrapped his massive paws around the bars and pulled, warping the beams with his might.

A green flash of light shot out towards him, searing his chest and paralyzing his movement. He collapsed onto the floor, vaguely aware of the fact he'd just fallen into water.

"Impressive."

Dazed, he looked up towards the voice, seeing only a great silhouette of darkness hovering by.

Much like the shadow-demons who had stolen her…

He lunged at the silhouette, only to be stunned again by another brilliant streak of light.

"Temper, temper," the voice chastised, oily and pitched with malice. "That's going to get you into trouble someday."

Slowly rising unsteadily to his knees, he looked at the voice. "Where's Belle?" he rumbled.

"Beyond any place where you can reach her. Tell me, what's a pretty thing like her doing with the likes of you?" Her blood lips curled into a sneer on her pale green face. "Are you some kind of faithful pet?"

His roar shook the foundations of Hollow Bastion, and for a brief moment, Maleficent looked worried as the creature reared to charge at her again. But a quick incantation silenced him, and another verse tore him away from consciousness.

Maleficent turned her attention towards the boy in the hallway. "Dispose of him any way you see fit," she commanded. "He's the last obstacle separating you from your friend."

-----

An hour, a lifetime, an eon ago, Belle had been in his arms, entrusting herself to those arms as she lay her head down upon his satined chest.

She trusted him.

He could feel her heart pounding, hoped his own heart didn't sound like the thunder he felt.

She sighed.

She was content.

With him.

Underneath towering pillars of polished white marble, a fresco of cherubs looked down in delight. Stars played behind glass walls, their diamond shadows reflecting off a gilded tile floor. An invisible orchestra played softly, bathing the hall in symphonic wonder. It was a moment so perfect he forgot all the troubles that had been creeping into the castle as of late, troubles that started long before Belle ever arrived.

A shadow may have lingered a moment too long in a darkened hallway, or fell too quickly when the sun set in the west. Little, mildly disconcerting things like this he paid no mind; after all, it was an enchanted castle, and enchantments are anything but stable. It wasn't until his servants began disappearing that he began to worry, though his most trusted and faithful servants seemed immune.

And then Belle arrived, and the world made sense again.

She stirred from her resting place, looked up into his eyes and smiled.

He looked in her eyes and saw acceptance.

More than that…

Was it…possibly…

And something else, something that didn't include him.

Her father.

She missed her father.

And it hurt her.

He couldn't let it hurt her anymore.

So he let her go.

And the castle broke apart.

In the silence before the world fell to darkness, he could hear the rustle of her gown whispering haste, away from him, away from this cursed place, mocking him.

He watched her disappear into the shadows of the hallway.

The floor opened up beneath him, oblivion ready to swallow its new prey.

"Beast!"

He bounded towards her, leaping over the gaping chasms that tore into the floors, ceilings, the very sky above. He ran to her, only to see her swallowed by the shadow demons, outstretched hand reaching for him before it too disappeared.

Oblivion consumed him, lashing out its numbing tendrils and wrenching him apart from his soul.

He fought back.

He only knew he had to get to her to save her, and he would follow no matter what he may cross.

Wrestling free of the darkness, he willed himself to be with her, knowing that the other half of his heart lay with her.

-----

The sound of roaring water roused him, and for one brief and hopeful second he prayed he was home, safe in the ancient forest. But upon opening his eyes, he knew that all sorts of devilry were upon him.

Water surrounded him on all sides, water that poured upwards and out of sight. The height of the rising falls staggered him, but what truly bewildered him were the great stone slabs hovering about the air without any aid.

And he was on one of those slabs.

As was a boy with silver hair, wielding a strange saber.

Beast pulled himself up and grunted, knowing that the battles were about to begin.


	2. Chapter 2

Copyright notice: "Kingdom Hearts" is not mine. Which is okay.

Author's note: Out of all the other characters in the Disney pantheon, somehow Belle and the Beast/Prince always seem to get the rawest deal of all in fanfics. We do like torturing this pair, don't we?

Chapter 2

It seemed to Belle that, in most of the tales she'd read, the heroine would almost inevitably fall into a swoon at the slightest hint of danger. This always annoyed her to no end, and left her fervently hoping for a story in which the damsel would not spend an integral moment of her life comatose and actually help do something, anything that would have a positive effect on the outcome.

However, as the shadows ebbed away from her, leaving her in the center of an eerie, poorly lit chamber, she wondered if perhaps all those distressed damsels were onto something. After everything she'd been through in the last couple of months, certainly this was the strangest, and the one that she would most want to remember strictly as a nightmare.

Was she in another part of the castle? With all the other enchantments running amuck there, she wouldn't have been too surprised. But this place…it didn't feel like the castle, and it certainly didn't look like any of the architecture there. She looked around at the ghostly green marble laid upon the wall and the floors. The ceiling was so high, the room so dark she couldn't see the arch of the vaulted roof. The room vaguely reminded her of Chartres, but with an air of desecration. Not like the little chapel in Beast's castle…

Beast.

"Beast?" she called out into the darkness, expecting him to emerge gallantly out of the shadows. He'd been right behind her, reaching towards her, his eyes mad with desperation as the darkness swallowed her. Why wasn't he here?

She wanted him here.

Very much.

She wanted to be back in his arms, back to the time when the whole silly world finally made sense. Back when she felt his heart thundering against her cheek, comforting and exciting at once. Back to the time when she was safe, he made her feel safe, because he loved…

Loved?

Her.

Belle began to shiver, the enormity of everything that had occurred to her in the last several hours finally weighing down upon her. Her father, lost somewhere in the wolf-infested forest, the shadow-demons, stealing her away, and Beast…

He would come for her.

She was sure of it.

He had to.

The hero always did.

"Ohhhh…yeah."

She startled, not at all recognizing the voice. But the tone was far too familiar: lust tinged with the selfish cockiness she remembered from another lifetime ago, back in the village. It was the undertone she always heard in the village men as she approached, particularly Gaston, and one she had grown quite used to not hearing from Beast. Suddenly aware of the revealing neckline on her dress, she straightened her posture, throwing her shoulders back as though that would conceal the bare flesh.

A soft, threatening chuckled followed as someone materialized out of the surrounding darkness. A man, a frightening man, taller even than Beast and robed in torment glided over to her. Even though he appeared misted in smoke, there was a coldness about him that terrified her.

He looked her over, grinning with such lechery she almost wished for the buffoonish attention of Gaston. "You…I like," he finally pronounced.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice strong.

The grin widened. "Hades, Lord of the Underworld. And you, my brunette beauty, are?"

She didn't answer, her mind reeling in shock as her entire system of belief came crashing down. "The Underworld?" she repeated, her voice now just above a whisper. "I'm in the Underworld?"

"Oh, if only. Babe, if we were there, you'd know and you'd never want to come back."

"Not before me men got a fair crack at her," a second voice said, a sneer laid deep in his words. Another man appeared, and this time Belle didn't need to be told what he was:

Pirate.

Her fear boiled to fury, flashing the memory of the swine who had robbed and killed her merchant uncle and seized his fleet of ships. It was because of them that she and her father had been castrated from the city, the good graces of her Uncle Robert no longer able to support them.

"Tell me lass, have ye got a sturdy pair of sea legs? It's on long voyages we could always use a trusty wench."

"Who cares about legs?" Hades answered. "All she needs is a strong pair of hips and-"

"You two! Touch one hair on her head and I will blast the both of you into the next eon."

A third voice, a woman this time, appeared before Belle's honor could be divvied up, though the appearances of this particular woman were far from reassuring. She could have been the handmaid of Lucifer, cloaked in black and beset with devilish horns, and a pale complexion that reflected the green of the walls.

Hades looked unimpressed. "Doll face, we were just getting to know our next resident and-"

"Out!" the woman thundered. This time, neither objected and disappeared in a trice.

"My sincere apologies, child," the woman said soothingly, approaching Belle. "Some of us at here Hollow Bastion are much less refined than others. I'm sorry if they troubled you."

"They did."

"They won't anymore, let me assure you."

It didn't assure her. Belle had no clue who this woman was, but that she kept the company of vile creatures like those previous two didn't impress her at all. Still, this cloaked woman had yet to show any intention of harm, and that, for the moment, was the best she could hope for. "Who are you?"

"I am Maleficent, caretaker of Hollow Bastion. And what is your name, my dear?"

"Belle. Of Lyons." She paused, hoping to get a straight answer. "What is Hollow Bastion?"

"It is this castle, and all the surrounding lands."

"How did I get here? And where's Beast?"

"You are an inquisitive little one, aren't you? Come with me, and I'll try to explain." Maleficent led Belle down a large corridor, a lone torch here and there offering little illumination. Belle was reminded of another walk such as this, Beast leading her to her chambers the first night she was in his castle. She had a terrible feeling this venture was not going to end up so well.

"You are here because you are good and pure of heart," Maleficent began. "The darkness that claimed you from your home was actually sent to rescue you, as your world was mere moments away from destruction."

Belle latched onto the last word of the thoroughly mystifying explanation. "Destruction?"

"Yes. The Heartless had entered your world. All the brokenness and cruelty that was in your world called to them, and they ripped it apart. You survive only because of your innate goodness."

Now Belle stopped in her tracks, beginning to understand what Maleficent was telling her. "My home…it's gone?"

"I'm afraid it is, child."

It was too staggering to even contemplate. Greece fell, Rome burned…but they didn't just _vanish._ And if her world was indeed gone, then there weren't too many places she could have come to.

She found herself wanting tears that wouldn't come, mourning for the loss of her friends at the castle, her dear, dear Papa and Beast.

She wanted them all here, to give her comfort, to be reassured that they were all right. But bringing them here would only damn them as well, and she would never wish that upon them. If hell was indeed the place she would spend eternity, for whatever sin it was that may have sent her here, then alone she would be.

Maleficent was speaking. She sounded so far away, but there was an insistent urge in her voice that brought Belle around to her question. "…you _are_ a princess, are you not?"

"No," Belle whispered, "No, of course not."

"But you were at the palace, you are clothed in the dress of royalty. Are you not a princess?"

"No. I was…I was with Beast…why isn't he here?"

Maleficent ignored the question. "Who is the Beast? Is that an appellation of some sort? Did he kill beasts for sport?"

"No!" Belle cried, now verging on hysterical. "He _was_ a beast, but he was the master of the castle, he was good, he was my friend, my dearest friend…he was kind…"

Maleficent arched a surprised eyebrow. "I have heard of such spells," she murmured below Belle's dry sobs. "Perhaps you aren't a true princess, but you may have been soon enough. You'll do. Come," she barked, now dragging Belle by her arm. Too confused now to offer any protest, Belle simply shuffled along, still searching the shadows for Beast.

After a long flight of stairs, Maleficent came to a large hall. Glass columns lay embedded on the walls, three on either side. Half were empty, while the other three-

"What happened to them?" Belle whispered, horrified. Three young women, no older she, lay entombed in the glass. All were fair, all royalty, judging by the finery that adorned them.

"They are merely waiting. And you will now join them."

A blast of magic shot out from Maleficent's hand, striking Belle and petrifying her body. Tendrils of magic crept over her, lifting her body into one of the empty chambers, then crept into her mind, lulling it to sleep. As she fought to remain conscious, she realized Beast had not come for her.

And that was the thought that carried her into nightmares.


	3. Chapter 3

Copyright notice: Wouldn't it be nice if Disney and Squaresoft just gave up their proprietary rights for "Kingdom Hearts?" Just hand it over to public domain? Wouldn't it just be really nice to not have to write one of these disclaimers for once, explaining that we, the authors, the fans, don't own anything that we've labored upon? Just a thought…

Chapter 3

The boy with the silver hair kept his bored gaze evenly on Beast. He leaned lightly on a curved scimitar, showing no consideration for the power it could wield, silver hair wisping around his face in the mist from the rising waterfalls.

The arrogance.

The _arrogance._

It sickened him.

The superiority, the total self-control, the unspoken condescension…with an uncomfortable knock of realization, Beast felt like he was looking in a mirror.

Well, a mirror from a long time ago. The time when mirrors were allowed in the castle, when they were needed to preen. As opposed to now, when the remnants of mirrors just taunted their fractured reflections in silence. Before this creature took over his body.

All for a dismissed rose.

Still…

The boy clearly felt he had an advantage over Beast. And as long as he believed that, Beast might as well find out why. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice rumbling above the resonance of the falls.

Grinning, the boy cocked his head to the side. "Does it matter?"

"If you know where Belle is, then yes."

"Who's Belle?"

"Don't lie to me, boy."

"What she worth to you, then?"

"Much more than your life."

"And yours as well?"

There was no hesitation: "Yes."

"Obviously, if you're here." A mild curiosity crept into the otherwise languid drawl. "No vessel, no help from the Heartless... so tell me, how'd you get here?"

Vessel?

Heartless?

What nonsense was this?

Did he mean the shadow-demons? Where they the Heartless? And what sort of vessel could have possibly born him on this journey, short of the skiff Charon navigated through the murk of the Styx?

With a gleeful smirk, the boy chuckled at Beast's obvious confusion. "You really don't have a clue what's going on, do you?"

"Shut up," Beast growled, itching to throttle that weak little neck and barely reigning in his bewildered fury.

"But then I couldn't tell you, you know. Let you in on the little secret why your girlfriend's so important. So I'll just go ahead, mind my own business…"

All the hopelessness, sorrow, and confusion Beast had felt over the last day raged through his voice as he howled, _"Where's Belle?"_

"Why do you even think she's here?"

His voice barely audible above the falls, Beast said, "When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!"

The boy offered all the verification Beast needed: "Take her if you can."

Beast needed no further invitation.

With a lunge and a roar, he hurled himself at the fiend, the antagonizer, the _child._

And the saber slit neatly through his ribcage…

The wolves.

The wolves were howling all around him, tearing, slashing, ripping.

They would kill him if they continued.

But he had to keep them away.

Away from Belle.

Belle.

He had to find Belle.

She was here, somewhere in this damnable…

Inferno.

Dante.

Belle was reading Dante in the library.

He caught a glimpse of her face as he walked past the doorway, then stopped, turned back, looking in on her. She sat in the high-backed chair by the fireplace, legs tucked delicately under burgundy skirts. Her brows knit together in consternation as she read the pages of a thick tome, a single lock of hair falling over intense eyes.

She was so beautiful.

He must have been standing there too long; she blinked several times as though waking, then turned her head. The warmth of her smile beckoned him inside as he paced forward. "I don't want to disturb you," he said, pulling up another chair aside hers.

"Don't worry, you aren't." Keeping the pages of the book opened, she placed it on a small marble-top stand next to the chair. "I could use a little break from that."

"What is it?"

"Dante's 'Divine Comedy.'" Her smile faltered slightly. "Which actually isn't a comedy, nor remotely amusing."

"Why not?"

A pause snuck into her response. "Maybe it will get better- I'm only on the first part right now. I just don't think that the suffering of those in hell terribly entertaining, even if it is just a story."

Puzzled, he asked, "Then why are you reading it if you don't like it?"

A small shrug. "A tutor once told me it was the greatest poem ever written, but we never got a chance to study it. I thought now might be a good chance to, since I have a lot of time…" Her voice trailed as she realized her unintentional jab at her captivity. Yet she plunged ahead with her analysis, and he listened to every word, each syllable the gentle musings of grace to his corrupted ears.

Halfway through her synopsis, he interrupted her. "What if they deserved it?"

"What?"

"Well, they're there for a reason, aren't they?"

"That's not something to be laughed at, then, as a 'comedy' might suggest. It means that someone refused redemption and caused a terrible amount of pain to others."

"So do you think everyone's redeemable?"

"If they want to be, yes."

It was out of his mouth before he even knew what he was saying. "Even monsters?"

And she looked at him, truly looked at him for perhaps the first time since he'd shown her the library. She offered him a ghost of a smile, devoid of pity but full of sympathy and in her eyes swirled just the barest gleamings of understanding. "Even monsters."

He loved her.

It was that simple.

He loved her.

He wanted to bellow it through the castle rafters and whisper it into her ears. He wanted to beg her forgiveness and simultaneously laugh at the Enchantress' s thwarted curse. And he wanted to hold her with _hands that could touch her without the risk of crushing her. _

And he would.

In time.

There was no more time.

The rose was gone.

…riku…

Lost into oblivion.

…stop…what's the matter with you…

The darkness that consumed all.

…there can't be two Keyblade masters…

Just withered petals.

…you were just the delivery boy…

And no hope.

…sora, your part's over now. go play hero with this…

The voices brought him back.

He was still alive.

Alive and in agonizing pain, he realized as he tried to move up from the ground. Fire tore across his chest, throbbing with each beat of his weakening heart. He tasted thick copper and felt his fur matting in the blood pooling beneath him.

But he was still alive.

And every step gained was one closer to Belle.

Beast stood, slowly, achingly, stuffing his fist into the wound to stem the flow of blood. In two steps, he was down on his knees, cursing his futility.

"Hey, don't move. You're hurt."

Another boy, shorter and with kinder eyes came into Beast's focus. Laying a hand on Beast's shoulder, the boy gave him a quick smile. "Here."

Instantly, the pain ceased. Beast stared at the boy in wonderment, the gash vanished save for a faint scar. Absently rubbing his chest as though to prove to himself certain, Beast said, "Thank you."

The boy nodded, then saddened, looking at a wooden sword discarded on the stone below.

Hoping for more luck than previously, Beast prodded, "Who are you?"

"My name's Sora."

"Do you know that other one?"

"Which one?"

There were more? "The one with the silver hair."

"Oh." Melancholy sunk into a voice that had only recently learned what sorrow was. "That's…Riku. I used to know him. I thought."

A friend betrayed then. And now perhaps an ally. "Why did you come here?" Beast asked, for surely something monumental had also brought this child here to the end of all things. When Sora didn't answer, he continued, dangling the offer of an alliance. "I came to fight for Belle. And though I am on my own, I will fight. I won't leave without her. That's why I'm here."

The statement seemed to jolt Sora. Looking up first at Beast, then down at the wooden sword, Sora reached down and grasped the handle, picking it up at staring at the knotted edges. "Me too. I'm not gonna give up now. I came here to find someone very important to me. You ready?"

The newfound determination in Sora's voice heartened Beast. He nodded, flexing his talons as though already sensing the fights to come. And so they began their way to the gates of Hollow Bastion, armed only with a toy sword, sheer will and the faint hope of a just universe where two beacons of light may be allowed to triumph over darkness.

-----

Author's Note: Yes, I know _"The Divine Comedy" isn't really a ha-ha sort of sitcom thing, but a commentary on the times as Dante then allegorically expounded upon. But do you really think Belle would know that? We give her a lot of credit, and she deserves a lot of credit, but not _that_ much._

know that 


	4. Chapter 4

Copyright notice: _2006! _We might have to wait until Two Thousand friggin' _Six_ for Kingdom Hearts II! Gah! If you're looking for someone to blame, it's Squaresoft and Disney, since they created the thing. I just fill in the sizable gaps.

Chapter 4

So this was eternity.

It reminded Belle of a fitful sleep, tinged with the bitterness of unfulfillment, the regret of wasted time, and the shame of every mistake elongated into the fabric of this nebulous, but aware, existence.

But this sleep lasted too long.

And the nightmares…

They refused to leave her alone.

Beast.

Beast.

Beast.

Each time she called his name, a different man from the village appeared in front of her, crowding her silently. They said nothing to her; only their accusatory stares gave any hint that they might feel anything at all. Gaston appeared last, and though he smiled that ever-confident smile of his, the coldness that hung beneath his eyes chilled her, incensed her. He was a waste of flesh and bones and yet he still had the audacity to treat her as property, his property-

His wife.

She was his wife, and her belly swelled with his seed. She birthed six, seven boys and on the last one she died. The doctor pronounced that it was the loss of blood and the strain of childbirth. Gaston nodded, then hung her up on his wall in the tavern, the perfect trophy wife.

Belle screamed.

This wasn't real this wasn't real this wasn't real.

Why couldn't she wake up?

This wasn't sleep.

She was in hell. She had to keep reminding herself that she was in hell, and she couldn't wake up from hell.

Why was she here?

Was it the books she read? Was it true that though she had gained knowledge, that gain had cost her soul? For she ate of the fruit of knowledge…

No. Fairy tales, Shakespeare, Chaucer and Malory couldn't possibly be that damning.

Was it because…?

Was it because she had fallen in love with a beast?

She loved him.

She understood that now, now when it was too late to tell him.

And it had damned her anyway.

Then she would love him throughout the ages, silently and unabashedly. In the bouts between nightmares, or tortures, or whatever they were, she would dream of him, revel in the memory of him. She wouldn't let herself forget him.

Not that he was perfect.

Far from it.

But he was…had been…perfect for her.

He could be so obstinate.

But then again…so was she.

It was the same evening that he'd shown her the library. He'd left her earlier so that she'd be free to wander amid the thousands, millions of pages that begged her to be read. She had even heard a couple of whispers bouncing around the corners, telling her which shelves she might like to try first.

He returned to the library just before dinner and found her sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, buried in Thomas More's "Utopia." He walked over to her and, with his claws extended, slashed her neck open.

No!

Of course he hadn't done that- confound and damn this horrible place! He wouldn't, he'd never hurt her.

Now.

To be truthful, she still hadn't been so sure then. Homer had filled her mind with all sorts of creatures and wild things that all seemed hell-bent on destroying human life. Upon first meeting, Beast seemed to have stepped out of Circe's island, the snarling, wild mass that he was.

What had changed him?

That first evening in the library…

No, she hadn't been sitting on the floor; there was a cushioned settee next to the fireplace where she stretched her legs out, decorum forgotten in the midst of More's words. She heard his claws gently scrape against the tiled floor, the sound pulling her back to the fantastic reality she had found herself entwined within.

She suddenly realized that her need for books had dimmed during the past several days.

When she first looked up at him, he seemed so unsure, so awkward, so…human? Certainly less of the monster than she first remembered meeting. But she did remember that monster, despite his recent bout of kindness, despite the gift of the library…and something in her heart cooled immediately.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Beast announced simply after an odd moment's pause, "Dinner is ready."

She didn't close the book. "You're not going to yell at me this time?"

Taken aback, Beast retorted, "I didn't yell. I…bellowed."

"Bellowed?"

"Yes. Bellowed."

"I see. So you're not going to bellow at me this time?"

"No."

"Good."

He paused once more. "Will you join me for dinner…please?"

She nodded. "Yes."

On their was to the dining hall, silenced danced merrily between their footsteps, scurrying away any hint of conversation down into the long hallway shadows. Finally Beast asked, "Did you enjoy the…books?"

"Oh, very much. Thank you. I haven't had a chance to read like that for a while. Usually I have to do chores around the cottage all day long…" Her throat suddenly constricted, and she took a deep breath to stem the tears that threatened. The mundane, backwoods, poor provincial town that she had so eagerly wanted to get away from never looked so welcoming as it did in that moment. And her father…! The library had been a pleasant diversion, would continue to be a pleasant diversion, but in no way could those books ever replace her father's presence. "I never thought I'd be so lonely," she inadvertently whispered.

Beast's ears perked to the sound of her voice. "Hmm?"

"Nothing."

The Beast stopped walking and turned to face her directly. "Do you think you're the only one who knows what it's like to be lonely?"

Startled, Belle looked up to him. She expected him to be angry; the growl in his voice still echoed against the marble. But all she saw were the depths of his eyes, so mortally sad that her own sorrow was stilled. And beyond that sadness lay sympathy for her, for all that she was forced to give up because of him. And her heart began to beat warmly once more.

She stood facing Beast, closer than she recalled him ever being. He reached out to her-

and Gaston pulled her close, vice grip clenching her naked back…

She was being pulled.

Whatever was left of her, it was being pulled.

Towards Darkness.

Towards The Door.

And there were others. Five others whose presences she felt, all being summoned to this place, for reasons they couldn't begin to fathom and every reason to fear. Belle felt their terror, their hopelessness, and an infuriatingly demure acceptance as all were commanded:

"Princesses of Heart, reveal to me the Keyhole!"

Reveal nothing. Belle told herself, told the others.

Fight against it.

Fight it. Don't listen to it. Fight against the Darkness…

She didn't know if they heard her, but the sensation of the pulling stopped, and the isolation returned. But a new voice, friendly and comforting, placed a mantra into her consciousness, and she kept it, for it quelled the nightmares and lulled her into quieter thoughts:

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


End file.
